1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a removable secure portable electronic entity including means for authorizing deferred retransmission. It applies, in particular, to removable information media including security means such as, for example, microchip cards with a secure microcontroller, conforming to the ISO 7816 standard, for example, USB (Universal Serial Bus) keys, SD (Secure Digital) cards, or a microcircuit card conforming to the MMC specification.
The invention also concerns an electronic device for reading this kind of electronic entity, or host terminal, including means for deferred retransmission of the content of the entity and, where applicable, means for receiving a broadcast content.
The present invention finds one application in the reception of a broadcast multimedia data stream, in particular the reception of terrestrial digital television or audiovisual streams broadcast over a computer network, for example the Internet or a telephone network, and, in particular, the reception of pay channels, tunes or films, necessitating either a subscription or a payment prior to viewing.
2. Description of the Related Art
One example of a portable electronic entity is an electronic key or “dongle”, which generally comprises an interface enabling it to be connected to a host terminal, which can be a workstation, a computer, a mobile telephone, a personal digital assistant, a digital television, an MP3 player, for example. The interface of the electronic key usually conforms to the USB (Universal Serial Bus) standard, which defines a universal serial bus system developed for simple and fast management of exchanges of data between a host terminal and a peripheral device, for example a portable electronic entity, a keyboard or some other electronic device. The interface of the electronic entity can also conform to other standards such as the ISO 7816 standard, the PCMCIA (Personal Computer Memory Card International Association) standard or the MMC standard. The portable electronic entity can also comprise a contactless interface, in particular an interface conforming to the WiFi or Bluetooth (registered trademarks) or ISO 14443 standard.
The broadcast multimedia data stream includes multimedia data and/or programme data. In the case of multimedia data, an audio and/or visual application is required to be able to view or listen to the data. In the case of programme data, means are used to execute the data. The data is in particular in digital form, for example to the MPEG format or of DVB (Digital Video Broadcasting) type.
There is known from the document EP 1 633 133, entitled “Portable apparatus for enabling reproduction of television”, a USB key including means for reception of a broadcast data stream and means for connection to a host terminal to send the host terminal data from the received data stream. The USB key described in the above document can also include means for recoding and compressing data.
However, the device described does not make reproduction of the received data secure.
Indeed, the device does not confer a totally satisfactory degree of security in that neither the host terminal nor the electronic entity is in fact secure. As a result of this a malicious person can obtain data from the stream and use it without having acquired the rights associated with that data.
It is necessary, in particular where pay channels are concerned, that only users who have acquired an authorization, also known as a license, are in a position to receive data.
There are known television receivers including storage means capable of reproducing at a given time a programme recorded previously, at the same time as recording a programme being broadcast at the same time. This function is referred to hereinafter as “deferred retransmission”. Such receivers are described in the applications/patents U.S. Pat. No. 5,241,428 and EP-789488 in particular.
There is also known the document JP2004193944, which describes deferred retransmission applied to a mobile telephone capable of receiving and displaying a television programme, the programme being broadcast being recorded automatically during a telephone conversation in order for the user to be able to view the recorded programme afterwards.
However, recording a portion of a broadcast content to provide the deferred retransmission function causes security problems. Illicit copying of the broadcast content must be prevented.